


After the Combat Sims

by ConnorJHadeset



Series: Eira Shepard's Reasoning [2]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 20:02:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13395216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConnorJHadeset/pseuds/ConnorJHadeset
Summary: After meeting for a drink, Jack and Shepard do several rounds in the combat simulations before coming back for beers.





	After the Combat Sims

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Negasonic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Negasonic/gifts).



Registering took less than a second after the facilitator saw Shepard’s face. She and Jack were led downstairs to pick which match they wanted. Shepard’s armor was delivered to her from the Normandy. While she changed, Jack was explaining how the enemies they could choose from were programed high density holograms. They could shoot and hit her and she’d feel the blows. Those running the simulator installed holograms to look like Cerberus troops and the Reaper ground forces.

The vest clicked into place and Shepard looked up at Jack, “I go from killing Cerberus and Reapers in real life to fake ones in here?” _Although…_ She strode to the console and went through the different ranks that were downloaded for use. There were the Cerberus infantry troops with a few of their snipers and heavy troops...but no Kai Leng. Not many must have seen him well enough to get a good look to write code for his likeness in a video game. “Damn it,” she said under her breath.

Jack tilted her head, “...whaaaat is it?”

“You heard about Thane?”

“I heard.” When Shepard was given Jack’s dossier more than a year prior, it told a story about a manic and explosive personality that could not be reasoned with. This violent persona she carried was brought on by a lifetime of emotionally damaging experiences and relationships, started by Cerberus, as many things in the current climate seem to be. Despite this, Jack’s unwavering and steadfast gaze disproved everything written about her in that dossier.

When Jack was first pressed to express emotion, it had the prelude of “Shit, I’m not good at this.” Now it didn’t need saying. Her eyes told Shepard all she needed to hear.

They went over to the armory window and picked out the weapons they wanted to use. Jack loved her shotgun and grabbed a pistol to go with it. Shepard, never backing away from close quarter combat, also took out a shotgun and paired it with an SMG as well.

The weapons appeared lifelike. Shepard lifted the shotgun lightly and looked past the armorer to the weapon racks behind him, almost longingly. The young salarian at the window asked her, “Is something wrong?”

She held up the shotgun, offering the grip to him, “I want that other one.”

As if by polite habit, he took the weapon by the grip, with an ever confused look on his face, “Which...which one do you want?”

Shepard pointed, not unlike a child at a toy store, “That one.”

The Salarian youth glanced at the shotgun she handed him, “Was there something wrong with this one? I need to know in case it needs modifications or repairs.”

“No, it was fine,” she replied, “kudos on the realism, function checks worked and everything. No. I just wanna use that other one.”

He turned his whole body back and forth to the weapon in question and to Shepard; back and forth, back and forth, “Um, okay…”

“It’s prettier,” Jack offered. “See how much shinier the upper receiver is than that other one?”

“That,” Shepard agreed, “and the barrel has a way nicer shade.”

The new weapon was handed out and Jack peered over to study the difference, “Oh, you’re right. Fuck, that is nice.”

After a match lasting three rounds, they came out and went right back in, randomizing the arena each time. They kept with the Cerberus troop program. Jack will never stop enjoying killing them and Shepard still felt chills from some of the Reaper ground forces. They took the fallen and mutated them into mechanical zombies. She fought the human versions of these for three years; there were Turian and Batarian and Rachni versions of them now.

The screech the Asari ones made haven’t left her nightmares. The times she woke up in a cold sweat reminded Shepard how much she hated sleeping alone. Liara was two decks below and focused on her work. They agreed to hold off on anything until after the war. That seemed possible when it was first discussed; now?

Each new round was met with loud applause when the pair of them exited the arena. The leaderboards blinked with ever changing scores. They both made it to the top five before Shepard decided they stop. Once changed back into her dress, there was a layer of sweat being absorbed into its fibers. The armor was sent back to the Normandy and Shepard invited Jack up to the apartment. Shepard was holding her shoes and walking barefoot. It was across the street and she needed a shower anyway.

The holographic advertisement stands outside flashed new headlines, reminding all passersby about the death of Counselor Udina and reminding them all of his crimes before the end.  
Udina was the only human with the prowess to succeed in the multispecies political climate with a millennia of history behind it, all for the sake of elevating humanity to have a voice in the galaxy they were inducted into less than a century prior. It was a team effort between Udina’s constant pressure on the Citadel Council, the intergalactic Triumvirate, mixed with Shepard’s and Anderson’s efforts that pushed for Shepard to be the first Human Spectre. An honor denied Anderson decades prior was bestowed on Shepard, another step towards humanity’s influence in the galaxy. That step led to the Citadel Council from having only a Turian, an Asari, and a Salarian councilor to having a Human among their ranks as well.

How fitting that it was with this near unlimited authority the Spectre status offered was to be used against Udina when Shepard killed him. He led Cerberus troops into the Citadel in order to stage the coup. And now, if it was to be believed, Udina shall spend eternity in the deepest circle of Hell with the other traitors of history, forever devoured by Satan.

Had Cerberus not attacked, Shepard would not have gone to rescue the Salarian Councilor. Kai Leng would not have been there and Thane would not have left his hospital room to help. He had to have been bedridden for months; his disease limited the amount of oxygen to his brain. How else could he make such the stupid mistake to hold a gun within arm’s reach of an opponent.

They fought, Thane was impaled on the bastard’s sword, and he escaped.

Shepard and her fire team secured the councilor and could not give chase. The other two councilors were not accounted for yet. It was a race against Kai Leng to Udina to save the Turian and Asari heads of state.

“Fuckin asshole,” Jack’s comment brought Shepard back again. “C’mon,” she took the commander’s arm and led her through the front doors.

Once upstairs, Shepard showed Jack the second spare room and the shower in there. She then went back upstairs; there was no shower in the bathroom there, just the hot tub. Shepard gave a low groan at herself and went to use the shower in the main bedroom, carrying a couple of the soaps and a robe.

The forces of bad luck might be tempted if Shepard claimed this room as her own, but she’ll damn every last one of them if they’ll hold it against her to use the shower. She kept away from the loofah that hung on the plastic hook and emerged a while later. She joined Jack down in the parlor, across from the library/office. There was also a small bar table there and a vid screen that took up the entirety of the wall.

Still in their robes, Shepard with a towel folded around her head, the pair of them sat on the couch, and clinked their beers as they surfed for a film to watch. What they were met with was a horrid combination of upbeat advertisements for various home care devices (often designed for the smaller apartments more commonly found in the Wards) and films and shows uploaded into the rotation from the various Citadel races.

One of the channels labeled itself as the home for classic movies; it was playing a Turian film that dramatized the Unification Wars; the protagonist stood out amongst his avian looking brethren, all with differing facial tattoos depending on their respective clans (Shepard still struggled to tell the clan markings apart; she always meant to ask Garrus about his), the hero propping a flag in place. It was reminiscent of the photos from the Battle of Iwo Jima Shepard saw in a military history ebook.

Two hundred and forty-two years later, Shepard thought, humanity goes from fighting each other to fighting destruction incarnate. She mused over how the soldiers of the second World War would fair against the Reapers. Would they turn and run when a horde of human husks comes running their way? Screeching like a herald of the void, blue glowing eyes, how would much stopping power would the rounds they used to fire have? They were just lead then; Shepard’s ancestors didn’t have any Shredder rounds or Incendiary rounds.

Shepard shook her head, How did they even function?

“Shep?”

Shepard turned to Jack, “Hm?”

“Tell me to fuck off if this is not my business, but are you and blue...I dunno, talking?” Jack winced when something emotional was being discussed. It was a change from the callous hostility she used to show.

“Yeah,” Shepard replied, trying to find a moment in recent memory where she and Liara weren’t on speaking terms, “she’s usually with me on missions.”

“So she was, I dunno, ‘cool’ I guess?” Jack decided this word to be satisfactory and nodded, “She was cool with you and Thane?”

Draining the bottle gave Shepard a chance to answer. She nodded her head, mostly to herself, to find her own set of words, “She wasn’t a fan.”

The memory of Liara’s shouting last year stuck in Shepard’s mind for weeks, *And now you’re taking the place of a dying man’s wife.* Several firefights and one captured star cruiser later, Liara’s patience returned.

“It felt tense when she came on last year,” Jack said. “I came up to get some food and bumped into him. I heard about you and blue and joked with him about it. Tried to joke with him about it. I think he was trying to make himself scarce.”

“She didn’t like it, but I think she understood,” Shepard said.

Liara had been working as an information broker since leaving Shepard’s crew. When they met on Ilium, she had been trying to find, and eventually kill, the Shadow Broker- the highest and most well connected source of secret intel in the galaxy. The pair of them found the Broker’s cruiser, fought through several waves of the private army stationed on it, killed the Broker, and Liara took the mantle without a missed beat. The remaining army and agents working under the Broker were none the wiser. Once she settled into her new role, Liara took a tour of the new Normandy, ending in the captain’s quarters with Shepard over drinks.

She was much calmer now; months of work and planning finally finished. Liara tried to be kind when asking about Thane’s condition.

_The Kepral’s Syndrome isn’t bad yet, but...I don’t know how much longer we have_ , Shepard said.

_You’re going through what an Asari does with a shorter-lived spouse, Liara replied, It’s not about how much time you have. It's about what you do with it._

It was in that moment Liara seemed to understand. Shepard wanted to know what it was like to outlive a lover.

“Think she’ll take you back?” Jack came back from behind the bar to the right of the vid screen with fresh bottles.

Shepard accepted one and drank, “I don’t know. We talked about it, but I don’t know. Just because she understood doesn’t mean she can forget it or forgive me for it.”

With a great sigh, Jack reclined in her seat on the couch, “I wouldn’t stay mad if it were me,” she drank. “We were hitting the Collectors, none of us expected to come back from that. All that time out in space in cramped quarters, always getting shot at. All that stress? You better believe everyone was fucking everyone else.”

“Speaking of which,” Shepard couldn’t help herself, “you hear from Miranda lately?”

The coughing, choking fit Jack fought to clear out lasted a minute before clearly completely, “What,” cough cough, “the fuck?” cough cough.

Feigning innocence, Shepard shrugged, “I’m just asking if you’ve heard-”

“I know what the fuck you’re asking, damn it,” Jack interrupted, “and fuck you very much for asking. And no I haven’t heard from the fucking cheerleader.”

“Aww, that’s a shame,” her tone may have sounded mocking, but Shepard felt a small tinge of sadness for the psychotic biotic. Miranda had met Shepard on the Citadel several months ago, long before the Cerberus attack. Then a few weeks before going to Thessia, they spoke again over holo-communicator. Miranda was tracking down her father, hoping to kill him from the sounds of it.

Shepard continued, poking fun intentionally now, “I was so sure you two hooked up before the Omega 4 Relay.”

“Fuck. You.”

“Like you said, everyone’s fucking everyone,” Shepard said, not holding back a smile. “You know...I’m pretty sure Tali and Garrus have been hooking up. Makes some kind of sense. Turians and Quarians have the same diets, they can’t stomach human food too well. And last time Tali was here, she and I watched Fleet and Flotilla.”

The spark of anger behind Jack’s gaze softened a fraction, “Oh, fuck,” she whispered, “those two would be so cute together it makes me want to gag.”

“Not as cute as you and Miranda.”

“I will smear these fucking walls with you.”

“I’ve talked to her, you know.”

Any and all emotion fell from Jack’s face, “What?”

“Miranda. I’ve talked to her a couple times,” Shepard chose not to wait for a response, “she’s alright. Just on the run.”

Jack’s gaze darted to different corners of the room before she decided to ask, “Did she say where?”

“She didn’t give a place, but I can guess....”

“Her father,” Jack stated and then shook her head. “Cerberus’s favorite gigolo. Him fucking with her is going to get him killed. Leave her and her sister alone and she would’ve forgotten about him.” Jack glared at Shepard, “Her sister’s okay right?”

“Miranda told me she got her and the foster family somewhere safe.”

Jack nodded and chugged the rest of her beer. She stood and strode out towards the stairs. A few minutes later she came back down, dressed, “I’m going to make a couple calls. Let’s do this again, okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” Shepard walked her to the door and they parted ways with Jack punching her in the shoulder, which Shepard returned. They hugged and Jack left.


End file.
